The Flip

Dec 5, 2009 was a milestone day - the flip

The process was rather simple. The shop has a 12' high ceiling with open trusses. I rigged 4 rope loops around the boat. The rope was 3/8 in. braided nylon. The loops were run thru pulleys bolted to the trusses. It was a simple matter to use a come-along and raise each end of the boat clear of the ground and then tighten the loops.

With 4 of us to hold it steady we simply rolled it over in the slings. The first time we found that we had not raised it enough off the floor to clear. I ended up raising it a total of 2 feet higher than the frames. It rolled with no issues.

The whole process from mounting the pulleys in the trusses to the actual role was less than 3 hours. One person could do this on his own but I had help to be sure it did not flip too fast on its own.

After the flip the slings were repositioned to the inside under the motor stringers. I left the boat suspended from the stringers so that I could sand and reapply a third and final coat to the bottom. This was done the next day. She stayed hanging for 2 weeks to allow a full cure of the bottom paint before I lowered her to the cradle.

In the meantime, I just climbed inside, swayed back and forth and made motor noises.